ILOILO CITY -- The city government here is seeking a PHP16.9-million budget for projects intended to support the fisherfolk sector under the “Enhancement of Fisherfolk Capacity and Livelihood Development for Community Resiliency” project.
Iloilo City agriculturist Romulo Pangantihon, in an interview Thursday, said that based on Fisherfolk Registration, the city has 1,678 registered fisherfolk residing in about 15 of the city’s 180 barangays with existing fishery councils. They are still engaged in fishing and fishery activities, such as fish vending, he said.
They are considered as municipal fishermen, or those who have bancas with less than three gross tons each, and they just fish within the municipal waters.
“They are the subject of the ‘Cares’ program of our local government unit,” he said.
The “Cares” program of Mayor Jose S. Espinosa III reaches out to all sectors in the city.
One of the proposed projects is to create equipment and paraphernalia pooling, including spare parts of their motor (engine) and other materials of their banca.
“It will be procured in pool and managed by their cooperative,” Pangantihon said, adding that they just have to develop a payment scheme.
They also intend to have a fish landing and trading center to provide opportunity to fisherfolk housewives to “engage in ambulant vending.”
Another proposal is to establish a fish processing center or value-adding center to develop “common products” that no longer command higher prices because of surplus in supply.
Housewives of fisherfolk will be trained on canning technology, using either bottles, tetra packs or vacuum technology but not necessarily tin cans, he said.
“At least we can augment lost opportunities because of lost resources due to the pressure of urbanization,” he added.
They will also incorporate the micro-enterprise concept and tap the Local Economic Investment Promotions Office for the overall package of the project. With this, the plan is to have a marketing and product promotions center that will function as a “showroom of available processed products to promote its market saturation.”
“We project that it would be successful given the correct mechanism once this is implemented,” he said.
The proposed PHP16.9-million fund already covers the four proposed projects. The request was forwarded to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Mike Diño, which referred it to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Western Visayas.
Pangantihon said on Monday they gathered fisherfolk leaders and urged them to organize to have a legal personality.
They will be formed into a federation and provided with training to develop their management scheme.
“There should be a management body that will undertake business in terms of marketing, management of finances,” he said.
The fisherfolk community can be found in the barangays of Calaparan, Calumpang, San Pedro (Molo), Navais (along Iloilo River) Sooc, Sto Niño Sur, Sto Niño Norte, Tanza Bonifacio, Tanza Baybay, Barrio Obrero, Mansaya, Ingore, Hinactacan, and Bito-on. (PNA)
